High-level Chinese delegation in Nepal to ‘take stock’ of political situation

PTI, Dec 27, 2020, 7:54 PM IST

Kathmandu: A high-level Chinese delegation led by a vice minister of the Chinese Communist Party arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday to ”take stock” of Nepal’s political situation after the dissolution of Parliament and subsequent split in the ruling Nepal Communist Party.

Although no specific details about the agenda of the visit are available, the four-member delegation, led by Vice Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Guo Yezhou, will hold high-level talks during its four-day stay in the country, according to highly placed sources.

Guo is expected to meet President Bidya Devi Bhandari, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Madhav Kumar Nepal, who has replaced Oli as chairman of the Prachanda-led faction of the party, sources said.

The Chinese embassy here and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are tight-lipped about Guo’s visit.

His visit is aimed at “taking stock of Nepal’s evolving political situation after the dissolution of the House of Representatives and subsequent split in the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) amid already-deepened intra-party rift,” My Republica newspaper reported.

China is not happy with the split in the largest communist party of Nepal, according to sources.

Guo, who personally knows all senior NCP leaders, will make efforts to patch up differences between the two warring factions of the ruling party – one led by Oli and the other led by Prachanda – during his four-day stay in Nepal, according to the Kathmandu Post.

Earlier, Gou travelled to Kathmandu in February 2018 when Oli-led CPN-UML and Prachanda-led NCP (Maoist Centre) – were all set to merge and form a unified communist party following the victory of their alliance in the 2017 general elections.

Later in May 2018, the two communist parties merged and formed a new party named Nepal Communist Party, the paper said.

Gou will assess the situation inside the ruling party and will encourage both factions of the NCP to seek some kind of common ground for party unity, the Post said, quoting party leaders.

He will communicate the message of Chinese leadership, including that of President Xi Jinping’s, to the NCP leadership, a ruling party leader said.

“Besides this, the Chinese side has not communicated to us anything about the visit,” the leader told the Post on condition of anonymity.

China has carefully chosen and sent Gou at a time when unity inside our party is shaken, a Standing Committee member said.

Nepal plunged into a political crisis last Sunday after Prime Minister Oli, known for his pro-Beijing leanings, in a surprise move, recommended dissolving the 275-member House, amidst a tussle for power with Prachanda.

Acting on the prime minister’s recommendation, President Bhandari dissolved the House the same day and announced fresh elections on April 30 and May 10, sparking protests from a large section of the NCP led by Prachanda, also a co-chair of the ruling party.

Meanwhile, President Bhandari has called the winter session of the National Assembly, the upper house of Parliament, from January 1, The Kathmandu Post reported.

Assistant Spokesperson to the President’s office Keshav Prasad Ghimire, in a statement on Sunday, said the President has called for the National Assembly session at 4 PM on January 1.

Oli-led Cabinet on Friday recommended the President to convene the winter session of the National Assembly.

Chinese Ambassador to Nepal, Hou Yanqi, had communicated about the visit of Guo to Kathmandu during her meetings with senior NCP leaders of both the Prachanda- and Oli-led factions.

Beijing appears concerned over the move of Oli to dissolve the House of Representatives and the evolving political situation that saw a vertical split in the NCP.

This is not the first time that China has intervened in Nepal’s internal affairs.

In May and July, Hou held separate meetings with the president, the prime minister and other senior NCP leaders, including Prachanda, when Oli was facing mounting pressure to step down.

A number of political party leaders had termed the Chinese envoy’s series of meetings with the ruling party leaders as interference in Nepal’s internal political affairs.

China’s political profile in Nepal has been on the rise in the recent years with billions of dollars of investments under its multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, including the Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network.

Besides the investments, China’s ambassador to Nepal Hou has made open efforts to garner support for Oli.

The CPC and NCP were regularly engaged in training programmes.

In September last year, the NCP had even organised a symposium, inviting some CPC leaders to Kathmandu to impart training to Nepali leaders on the Xi Jinping thought ahead of the visit of the Chinese president, his first to Nepal, according to a Kathmandu Post report.

In a guarded reaction to the fast-paced political developments in Nepal, India on Thursday said it was an ”internal matter” of the neighbouring nation and it was for the country to decide as per its democratic processes.

”We have noted the recent political developments in Nepal. These are internal matters for Nepal to decide as per its democratic processes,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said in New Delhi.

”As a neighbour and well-wisher, India will continue to support Nepal and its people in moving forward on the path of peace, prosperity and development,” he said.